Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. It looks like I was put on the naughty list and received nothing again. The snows predicted for Christmas day lasted for 20 minutes and the Straits System saw nothing from it at all. Crazy as the North shore has seen a over a foot, and just South in Petoskey they got 20" of lake effect, but we were in the sucker hole again.

I know it is not what you want to hear from us, but we are still not grooming, and I can't put a date on the first panning yet. The lack of snow, the fact that what we have is already settled down some, and what isn't was lake effect powder, and the amount of water in the woods just doesn't make sense to go out and hammer on the equipment. Wayne says we need another 5-6" in Moran, and Bobby says we need another 8-10" in Epoufette to start operations.

Can you ride on our trails right now? Yep. Super early season conditions though. You will find some water (for awhile) and rocks for sure. ANy amount of traffic will turn them to snirt for sure. I know people have ridden locally for a couple weeks, and others have trailered to Brevort. In fact, we had a downstate trailer in the ice rink lot on Friday which was gone all day, but I didn't catch them when they came back to see how the trails were. Folks are saying 6" of light stuff in the woods, and about 3 inches around towns. The groomer drivers are itching to start, but even they are saying hold off right now.

I do know that Chasers were in to the North side of Trout Lake, and the trail is said to be snow covered. Same with TASA into Rexton - but that is as far as they have come there. Any riding out of our area will likely involve trailering out for the time being.

OUTLOOK
OK, that was the awful truth about conditions. It is super cold today, and it will be that way all week. Forecast is for continued single digits to teens for the upcoming week which is making ice bigtime. Hopefully that will freezing in all of the water we have, and surrounding club's swamps for a change. Lake effect seems to be the the name of the game for the foreseeable future as there are no BIG storms on the horizon. A small system snow may bring something to us Thursday & Friday with amounts still hazy, but nothing huge.

The forecast is as follows:

Quote:

Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 11. Wind chill values as low as -18. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Tonight: Isolated snow showers between 2am and 5am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 0. Wind chill values as low as -12. West wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of snow showers after 8am. Partly sunny and cold, with a high near 10. Wind chill values as low as -14. North wind 5 to 10 mph.

Wednesday Night: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 1. Wind chill values as low as -9. North wind around 5 mph becoming east after midnight.

Thursday: A 40 percent chance of snow showers before 8am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 15. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Thursday Night: A 40 percent chance of snow showers after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 8.

Friday: A 50 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 17.

Friday Night: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 5.

Saturday: A chance of snow showers before 8am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 13.

Saturday Night: A chance of snow showers between 8pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -2.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy and cold, with a high near 10.

Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around -1.

New Year's Day: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 13.

Keep your good thoughts going. We will get things fixed us as soon as we can. In the meantime, you should probably look to the extreme NW lower (although the bullseye was pretty small) and the typical Superior Shore as the Lake Effect will drive most trail conditions for the foreseeable future.

4 degrees this morning, and Iggy is the warm spot on our system. On our way to the high of a whole 12. The remained of 2017 is certainly going to be chilly, as 12-15 will be the high for the next several days.

Big lake making ice again, this is the second day in a row that the bay was frozen over.